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Fantastic Beasts Tops Box Office With $75 Million Debut

'Zootopia' image courtesy of Walt Disney

Zootopia is having a terrific hold in its second weekend easily topping Friday (and the weekend) with $12.023 million (-37%) to cross the $100m mark in its eighth day of release. The film has earned $104.64m and will likely make $51.3m (-32%) on its second weekend to boost its domestic total to $143m. That's a smaller second-weekend drop than anything approaching this scale regarding March animation, and it is just shy of the 25% second Friday drop for The LEGO Movie which had its second weekend on the Presidents Day holiday.

Said Warner Bros./ animated juggernaut fell 27% thanks to the holiday on its second weekend and earned $142 million by the end of its eleventh day (Monday was a holiday) and "just" $130m by the end of its tenth day. Zootopia could end up among the top thirty biggest second weekends of all time, and it's the somewhat rare release to snag a $50m second weekend without opening above $80m. It's doing massive business in China as well ($64 million as of Friday) and easily soared above the $300m mark in worldwide grosses. It's frankly leaving The Lorax in the dust as of this weekend and may cross $200m by the end of next weekend.

At this point, $250 million domestic seems likely, $275m seems possible and, if it can hold onto screens and buzz when Batman v Superman rolls into town in two weeks, we may enter April with two $300m+ domestic grossers. Yes, next weekend sees The Divergent Series: Allegiant, but that's a strictly-for-the-fans affair. For general moviegoers, Zootopia will remain the big cinematic offering until Dawn of Justice dawns on the evening of the 24th. So kudos to whoever got their trailer attached to this one (The Jungle Book, Ghostbusters, etc.) because said trailers are going to have a lot of eyeballs.

London Has Fallen earned $3.023 million (-60%) on its second Friday for a $31.25m 8-day cume. Expect a $9.83m weekend (-55%) and $38m ten-day total. Comparatively, Has Fallen dropped 52% on its second Friday, 53% on its second weekend, and had $54m by the end of its tenth day. Heck, White House Down dropped 48% on its second Friday, 45% on its second weekend, and had earned $50m at the end of day ten. So yeah, the second Gerald Butler saves Aaron Eckhart from scary foreign terrorists adventure is going to earn a lot less than the first one. Still, it only cost $60m to produce so we may yet see a third one if it can pick up the slack overseas.

Not to be outdone, Deadpool earned another $3 million (-36%) in 3,331 theaters to bring its domestic cume to $320m domestic. That means it has officially passed Iron Man on the list of comic book/superhero movies and is now in the top-ten in both respective charts. It is now the eighth-biggest Marvel movie and the third-biggest non-sequel comic book movie behind Guardians of the Galaxy ($333m) and Spider-Man ($403m). Oh, and if it hasn't already, it will be crossing $700m worldwide very soon. Once again, it's doing this with an R-rating, without 3D, and without China to bolster those grosses.

Tina Fey'sWhiskey Tango Foxtrot had an okay hold save for the fact that it had a terrible opening weekend. The Paramount/ Inc. release earned around $1.344 million (-45%) on Friday for a likely $4.3m weekend (-42%) and a $14.3m ten-day cume. It looks like $20m-and-out for this unfortunate miss. Speaking of unfortunate misses, Gods of Egypt dropped another 51% for a $653k Friday. That sets the stage for a $2.48m weekend (-52%) and a $27m 17-day cume. The "good" news is that the film earned $6.3m on its first day in China, so that will be one to watch. Risen should earn around $2.248m (-42%) for its fourth weekend (or about half of what The Young Messiah earned in its opening weekend) for a solid $32.3m cume.

The Revenant should make around $1.96 million (-42%) over the weekend after a $0.525m Friday and a new $177m cume. Everyone has either seen it or will wait for post-theatrical. The Leonardo DiCaprio drama will end its 12th weekend with a whopping $179m domestic cume as it approaches $450 worldwide. Kung Fu Panda 3 will start the majority of its international rollout next weekend, but for the moment expect a $1.52m weekend (-57%) and a $136m domestic total for the DreamWorks Animation sequel. Starr Wars: The Force Awakens earned $0.297m yesterday and will cross $930m domestic on what is likely its last $1m+ weekend. How to Be Single will cross $45m by tomorrow while Ride Along 2 will cross $90m domestic as well. And Hail, Caesar! is basically done for as it tries to pass the $30m mark before leaving theaters.

That's a wrap for the Friday holdover news. Join me tomorrow for the weekend estimates and the like.